Prof. Ajit Salunke Conferred PhD by VTU for Research in Post-Harvest Quality Grading of Edible Agricultural Nuts

Prof. Ajit Salunke, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Don Bosco College of Engineering, Fatorda, Goa was conferred the PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering by Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, at the 25th Annual Convocation held on 4th July 2025. He pursued his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Sunilkumar Honnungar, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at SDM College of Engineering and Technology, Dharwad, which also served as his research center.

His research focused on the automation of post-harvest quality grading of agricultural edible nuts, particularly arecanuts, with an integrated approach combining computer vision and real-time data processing enabled by Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based platform, coupled with mechanical techniques. The study introduced a novel method for sorting based on physical properties of the nuts and optimization of critical processing parameters.

Dr.  Salunke has published research papers in two SCOPUS-indexed international journals, three SCOPUS-indexed international conference proceedings, and one national conference proceeding. He has also presented his work at the National University of Singapore, NIT Surathkal, and Chandigarh Engineering College.